The Hopeless Job
by D890
Summary: What happens when Eliot decides to help Hardison get something he wants? What happens when he decides to use Quinn as his second on the job? Eliot should have known it would all go south when he let Hardison talk him into this, but he really should have known better than to go in with Quinn... Written for Musingmidge77 in AO3 Santa gift exchange for Leverage writers... enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

The Hopeless Job

CHAPTER ONE

"Damn it, Spencer!" Quinn spat out. He was trying desparately to provide coverage for the renegade retrieval specialist by firing back at the well-trained security team that currently had them cornered inside their fancy high-tech building. The same high-tech building that Hardison had gotten them into, but suddenly was unable to get them out of. Probably because they no longer had contact with the hacker.

"Why, just once can't you learn to like guns? Because how in the hell are we gonna get out of here without your help here?!"

Eliot Spencer ignored the other man as he continued to stretch for the object that was lodged in the splintered clear plastic case. The case had ended up just beyond his reach after the explosion that Quinn had set off just before he was supposed to and which had blown the cube clean off its perch. Eliot was now struggling to grasp it before it became dislodged with the other debris and fell into the black hole created from said blast. "I told you Quinn, I don't need a gun... and you wouldn't either if you were better trained!" He grunted as the stretching caused his already broken ribs to dig into his side even more. "Damn it, Quinn! Why didn't you wait for the damn timer to go off?!"

"I'm trained just fine! And I didn't know the thing had a timer! With all those buttons Hardison built into the dang thing, who could tell what it was supposed to do?!" Quinn moved a little to his left so he could return fire just over Eliot's outstretched body. "If you don't hurry up, we won't be getting out of this one alive let alone with that stupid wizard ball Hardison wants so damned bad!" He moved back to the right just past Eliot to fire at a new soldier taking the place of the last man Quinn had taken out. "Hurry up! These guys are duplicating like crazy! I don't know how they got up here so fast!"

"I am trying! But the thing is lodged just out of my reach!" Eliot pulled his left hand back to reach down and unhook the rigging that was keeping him anchored to Quinn since the flooring had drastically tilted after the explosion; a relatively impressive explosion considering how small the device had been. Eliot hoped by doing so, he could gain those precious few inches between him and his target.

Eliot had his fingers on the case, then they were sliding off as he tried desparatey to grasp it; _just a little bit more, he thought._ Just has he got a solid grip on the small cube, his world tilted violently to his right. The wound to his left side rubbed hard against the debris and he couldn't help but cry out as he felt another rib crack under the pressure. The next thing he knew both he and the cube were falling over the edge and into a vast hole of nothing...

"Damn it Spencer!" Quinn ground out once again as he felt the rigging that was only now partially holding onto Eliot pull against his torso where he'd strapped it to anchor the other man. He lost his footing and his weapon as he too began falling over the edge of their world and into the same black abyss that Eliot had just disappeared into.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _48 hours earlier_

"Look, it'll be an easy in and out job," Hardison began, as he tried desparately to get Eliot to understand how important this was to him. "It's a new gaming device that will revolutionize the world of gaming as we know it!" He added, smiling like a child trying to explain to his parents his need for the newest toy.

"Right." Eliot said from the other side of the breakfast bar where he was chopping up vegetables for their dinner that night. "Revolutionize your little dragons and elves world you mean."

Hardison gasped at that. "I keep telling you they're not elves! And besides, the newest one about to hit the market is _The Last Overlord._ The company is holding back on its release for more money. That's why we gotta steal it, so the world can have it at a fair price." Hardison shook his head at the hitter. "This company is holding out wanting to sell it for like 4 figures, and that ain't right you gotta know that Eliot. Kids don't have that kind of money, so only the rich kids'll get it and it'll be like chaos out there. Gaming is a big thing and all kids should enjoy gaming, not just the rich kids."

"And I should worry about this chaos, because why?" Eliot asked. He moved over to check his pan on the stove before dropping two handfuls of veggies to saute before adding to his stew. He loved the roasted flavor of grilling his vegetables first, but Nate didn't have a grill plate on his stove. He made a mental note to have Nate buy a new stove. "You know we only take on cases where the client has been injured, threatened or wronged in some way and I'm not hearing that here."

"Eliot, do you remember high school?" Hardison asked, his voice suddenly going quiet.

Eliot took note quickly of the tone of Hardison's voice and immediately turned from the stove to focus on the younger man. "Yeah..." He said slowly.

"I bet you were a jock, so you were pobably popular, right?"

Eliot thought back to his football days at his old High School. Kissing the most popular girl, Aimee... that had started out so great, and then it had ended badly. At least until he and the team had gone back to help Aimee's dad with Kentucky Thunder. Now he tried to keep closer tabs on the two of them. "What does that have to do with you wanting a new toy?" He asked roughly, but he tried to take some of the bite out of his words.

"Everything, El... I wasn't a popular kid. I was raised by my Nana and you know she wasn't my real Nana, but she raised me and she was great. But we didn't have money, Eliot. So I learned early on how to put together computers to do what I wanted." He paused as he took a deep breath. "I never told anyone this, but we were really poor, Eliot. That's why when my Nana got sick, I stole that money, to help her." Eliot listened as he watched Hardison fighting with his thoughts on what to tell him. "And all the other kids at school were playing all the cool video games, but I didn't have any, so I learned how to hack into companies and find what I wanted. I got good at it too, and not just at the hacking part, but at the playing games part." Another deep pause as Eliot reached over to flip his veggies before dumping the panful into the bubbling stew. "I promised my Nana that I'd do the right thing one day and pay back the money, which I did, anonymously, even though it's still on my record, cause I couldn't let them find me. I still had to take care of Nana for a long time after her treatments; but I always swore I'd figure out a way to let all kids have fun with gaming. I always wanted to help other kids who didn't have the money to be able to afford the same games and systems that the richer kids got. All kids should be able to have access to the same kinds of things like that." Hardison was looking at Eliot with his whole heart out there. He'd never told anyone that he'd actually paid the money back, nor had he ever told anyone just how hard things were for his Nana money-wise. She would never complain, but he knew.

Eliot listened to the other man's story and he felt for him on that. He'd always been a poor kid too, but he had taken to athletics and ended up using his body to get him the popularity he'd had. Whether on the field or off... Those where some great times, he smiled to himself. He sighed too as he took in Hardison's whole demeanor. He was going to regret this, he knew that the minute he made the decision. "Fine, how do we go about doing this job, cause I'd better not have to deal with any of your techy toys, or any conversations about overlords or elves while we're doing this, you hear me?"

Hardison smiled widely as he spoke. "Damn it, Eliot, I keep telling you they ain't elves!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"How in the world did you rope Eliot into doing this job?" Nate asked, his gaze focused on the middle monitor of Hardison's viewing screens; the one that was currently showing the Richmond Industries Tower map. Hardison had called him and Sophie back from their weekend in Denver because he'd lost contact with both Eliot and Quinn over ten hours ago. Nate couldn't believe that Hardison had managed to not only get Eliot to agree to this little plan, but that Eliot had been able to get Quinn to go along with it as well.

"Hardison, when does Parker get back?" Sophie asked, taking note of the young hacker's obviously troubled features. "And why didn't you have Parker help Eliot with this job, instead of bringing in Quinn?" She added. She knew Parker would have been able to find a way in and out of this building no matter how small an opening it was.

"I didn't want to bother you guys and Parker hasn't been to see Archie in a while, so I didn't want to interfer there." Hardison sighed, "she should be back sometime soon, though. I calledher after I knew you guys were on your way, and I've already briefed her. As soon as she's here she's willing to go in, but I don't want to lose her either." He struggled with his fear over losing contact with Eliot and Quinn. "That's why I figured I better call you; cause you know... I don't know what else to do. After the explosion the comms went out and I don't even know where in the building Quinn and Eliot are anymore, let alone how to get them out. I mean, I can hack the main computer if I can get access to it; to help them get out and all, but without knowing exactly where they are, I don't know what help they can use from me." Hardison paused as he felt the weight of this whole gambit going wrong from the get go was his fault. "I didn't think it would be this well fortified. I mean, the gaming industry is tooth and nail, but I just didn't think about how much they'd want to protect this one piece of technology when they have to have all kinds of other gaming things in there as well."

Nate sighed a little too loudly as he listened to the young man. "Okay, so you got both men in the door, and they were almost to the vault where the... the... what did you call it again?"

" _The Last Overlord_."

"Okay, so they were almost in the vault where the prototype was being stored and you had a mini detonator for them to blow through the vault, and it went off early, right?" Nate surmised, from what he'd been able to piece together.

Hardison nodded at the question. "Yes, but I don't know how it could have gone off early since I programed it myself. The only way it could have gone off early was if one of them messed with the timer mechanism, which is possible, I guess; but I told Eliot how important it was not to mess with it and you know Eliot, if you tell him exactly what to expect, he's got it down. So my guess is, somehow someone maybe surprised them and... well... you know..."

"Maybe Quinn had it instead of Eliot, or something went wrong with another signal crossing over yours? Is that possible, Hardison?" Sophie asked, keeping her voice level and pleasant. She knew how important it was for Hardison to stop blaming himself for this.

"I suppose it is, but it's not likely. I build my devices very carefully and for someone to take control over the timer would mean that person is either a genius or damn lucky; and I'm going for lucky, cause ain't no one smarter than me on my own inventions."

"Well, for now let's go with the assumpton that either Eliot or Quinn messed the timer up, but keep the 'not a genius guy' in the back of our minds just in case." Nate spoke easily enough, considering all the options available for them on this job. "For starters, I need to know exactly how you got them in and then I need to hear every word spoken between you and them up to when you lost contact. We can get a general idea then on how they proceeded to the vault and maybe something in the audio can be found to indicate what happened." He paused, eyeing the third monitor which was currently running a revolving image of the vault and the walls surrounding it. "I've got an idea, but it means Parker will be going in, but don't worry Hardison; she won't be alone. I want you to call Eliot's friend Shelly. He'll be going in with Parker." Nate focused in on the image when it stopped revolving for a moment; then he slowly grinned. "We're going to also need deep access to this gaming company and I want to know why they have a security system that is second only to a Steranko; this system is very similar to one I've seen before... And there is only one person who can give me that answer." Nate knew the man, knew his ego as he'd been subjected to it for endless hours on the job back in his IYS days, but he was the only one who'd actually seen this kind of system from the inside. Nate would have been happy to never have to see the man again, but he did owe Nate... and he owed Eliot even more.

Nate knew that if Eliot survived this, he'd be mad for what Nate was about to do, but he'd be alive and Nate could handle that. By bringing someone in to help Parker and Shelly find the two men, Nate was effectively opening Eliot up for possbly even bigger problems; but he really had no choice here. Nate decided it was better to have an angry live hitter than... well, than a no longer live hitter. "Hardison, you still have that number I gave you for emergencies?"

At the look of sheer disbelief on Hardison's face at the meaning behind Nate's request, Sophie knew instantly this wasn't going to be the best plan Nate had come up so far, but she understood desperate times called for desperate measures. "Hardison, it'll be okay, promise." Sophie had an ace up her sleeve too, so to speak.

This man owed all of them, especially herself and Eliot; and she knew just how to make sure nothing went wrong. She knew which buttons to push on the former IYS investigator. She'd just have to do some of the best grifting of her life to be sure that James Sterling knew exactly what was at stake here... and what would happen if he even tried to cart off their hitter for the bounty on his head.

The team had gotten Sterling's daughter safely away from her stepfather, but it was the fact that Sterling had drugged Eliot that was going to be his downfall... or his saving grace. Yes, she thought to herself, smiling inwardly; she had just the thing to keep Sterling in line. She was going to be able to turn the tables on him now. "Call him Hardison, and tell him he owes us; and remind him how much Eliot would just love to sit down and share another cup of coffee with him..." This could just be about the most perfect way to get Sterling's help than any other method in the world, because Sophie was the only person other than Eliot who knew exactly why such a paranoid retrievial specialist/renegade soldier would actually allow himself to be drugged; and by someone such as Sterling. Yes, Jim Sterling was going to regret even more what he'd done to her and to her team, but especially what he'd done to Eliot Spencer. Life was good, she thought with a grin.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Quinn slowly roused to conscousness moving his head from side to side, and then wishing that he hadn't. His head felt like he'd just gone ten rounds with Spencer, and he was pretty sure that even though he was a good hitter, Eliot was far better. Which meant he'd suffer a lot at that man's hands; but then memory came flooding back and he realized he was on a mission with Eliot in which he'd been promised a large payout in the end. He quickly took stock in the fact he was pretty sure the only wounds he had were minor in comparison to his throbbing head. Probably gonna have another concussion to deal with later, he thought wearily.

Coughing out the dust he'd breathed in, he blinked several times to get his bearings. He quickly took inventory of his body mentally to be sure his assessment was on point, then he took in his surroundings. He'd come to rest in a small air pocket under the steel beams and girders of the large building. He could see and that was a plus; he could breathe as well, so another plus. Quinn figured that meant he was lucky, and he could only hope Spencer had been too. He really needed that payout, especially if he was going to have some recouperating to do after all this.

"Spencer!" Quinn was surprised at how weak and gravely his voice was. He coughed and tried again. "Eliot?" He felt this sickening feeling of dread fill him when he received no reply.

Quinn tested each of his limbs carefully and began to slowly move around in the semi-darkness looking for the man he'd been working with. He couldn't see Eliot anywhere, but then he heard the soft shallow breathing that came from a few feet in front of him. He carefully moved around the boulders and debris of the building's 18th floor that had now become part of the 17th floor, or maybe it was the 16th; he had no idea really. They could be in the friggin' basement for all he know; moving slowly, he reached the beam of light coming from the huge hole in the floor over his head.

The hole had been impressive in size when he'd first made it with the ill-timed bomb, but now that some of the building had collapsed from the weakening of the blast, the hole was big enough to drive a tank through it. If he had a tank... or felt like driving, which at the moment he did not. Quinn mentally shook himself as he realized he was not making much sense, even to himself.

He half-stepped half-crawled over the mound of debris between him and the sounds of the breathing, and just as he breached the top of the mound he saw the other hitter. Spencer's face was all he could see at first, and even though they weren't really friends, his heart sank at the sight. The man was practically buried under a huge chunk of concrete covering his lower half; and he didn't seem to be moving at all.

Quinn sucked in a quick breath as he let himself slide haphazardly down the other side of the mound to land near Eliot's head. He could have sworn he'd heard the man's shallow breathing, but now looking at him, Quinn didn't think he was even alive, let alone attempting to breathe.

He felt a tremendous sense of relief though, when he saw Eliot twitch slightly and let out a soft moan. Quinn reached a shaky hand out to check for a pulse at the base of Eliot's throat when out of the darkness, a hand snapped up from the rubble and grabbed his wrist, pulling him down beside Eliot. Quinn jerked in surprise and instinctively pulled at the restraining grip, thinking it might be Eliot at first who had a death grip on him; but he knew it wasn't; Eliot wasn't moving; and this hand... was too soft to be a man's.

Someone else had been brought down when the floor collapsed under them and the odds were telling Quinn that this person was probably not a friendly. This person, this woman, was most likely part of the security soldiers that had had them pinned just moments before.

Quinn stopped struggling like a teenage boy in a slasher flick about to get bitten by the werewolf when he stumbled into the animal's path, and twisted his wrist sharply to the left causing the grip on his hand to slide away. He watched as the hand dropped back down to lay across the chest of a rather small looking form. Quinn blinked as he took in the two bright green eyes staring up at him from a face covered in dirt and soot; and from what he could see in the darkness a rather attractive face.

The woman was half buried underneath Eliot's upper torso, but she was awake and alert. She blinked up at him as he tried to get his bearings before she finally asked, "Are you just goning to just sit there and stare at me or are you going to help me?!"

And with her slightly soft midwestern voice dripping with sarcasm, Travis Quinn knew he was a goner; he was so in trouble now.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

In his early days of boot camp, Shelton Marsh, Jr., AKA Shelly to his family and close friends, had trained alongside Eliot Spencer, so he knew how the man worked; for the most part. Granted he'd changed a lot of his habits since those days, but Shelly knew he'd be able to get to the man... that is if he could wrangle Parker into doing things his way; at least until she got him inside.

The girl, _(woman maybe? He thought.)_ Parker didn't sit still... _ever._ At least not in the last two hours since he'd arrived. She was all over the place, and he was a little worried as he took in the way she was currently balancing on the upper stair railing high above him in Nate's apartment. She'd been there almost since his arrival, and he wondered how she didn't lose consciousness from all the blood rushing to her head. _Maybe all that blood rushing to her head was why she was bouncing around all the time..._

Everyone else was listening as Nate explained his plans, and didn't seem fazed by the small blonde thief's actions; but it unnerved him just a little. He'd taken on lots of assignments that meant almost certain death, and in all those prepping sessions, he'd never been more worried or unsettled as he was right now, when facing the fact he had to _follow_ Parker's lead.

He shook his head and turned his attention back to the meeting. He didn't know how Spencer stayed sane with this bunch, but he couldn't help smiling. He could see why they were all good at what they did; even if they all had their little quirks, and eccentrities; especially Parker...

Shelly turned a more serious thought back to Nate as he listened to what they would be going up against; and the fact that they planned on using Jim Sterling's expertise to get Hardison access to the building's security system. Shelly had learned long ago to train his brain to recognize and remember things even if he didn't always think they were important at the time, because they could end up being the only thing that could save him later on. It was something Eliot had taught him; it was how one had to compartmentalize information so that one could always bring it to the forefront when it was needed, but not so you had to worry about it interfering at the current moment. So he half listened to what Nate was saying, so he could take in all the factors around him.

"OK, so is everyone on the same page right now?" Nate asked the others in the room after he'd gone through the basics of the building and it's business purposes. At the nodding of the others, he continued, "Right, so Parker gets herself and Shelly in through the same venting system Hardison sent Eliot and Quinn through, then once they are inside, they will head for the main Security Surveilance office at the back Southeast corner of the building; that will be Shelly's job, clearing the way there. Once there, Hardison will walk them through what he needs done to gain full control over the building's computer system and it's security details." Nate pointed to the room on the monitor Hardison had displayed. "Parker will then make sure they all get out. She will have acomm link to Hardison, while Shelly will be linked only to me. I will have access to all of you once though, and once Parker and Shelly get to Eliot and Quinn, Hardison can re-establish everyone's comms if possible.

"Sophie will be monitoring from inside the building in her role as a medic on staff. Hardison had gotten her mid level security entrance approval as a member of Richmond's medical personnel." Nate nodded to Sophie. "She will be able to commnicate with all oof you on her link; to act as the go between for everyone. Hardison is limiting the comm links so there is less chance of signals being jammed up just in case that was how the bomb was set off. If we're all on at the same time this system might be able to track and block our connection if we overlap too many signals."

Hardson nodded in agreement. "The building has been closed since last night when I sent Eliot and Quinn in, and hasn't opened up this morning, so my guess is they know that El and Quinn didn't get out. They seem to be doing a floor by floor search, but most of my links to the main computer of the building have been blocked or destroyed by the blast; it seems as if it detonated in or near the vault area and weakened several floors causing a cave in, so this may be where our guys are and I have no idea how many floors are affected. I can only access lobby desk security cameras and their communication is limited from main security. There are some medical personnel on site, but no police or any outside medical response teams. They are handling this internally, so there will be a lot of bad guys running around."

"Right. So all we need now is to wait for Sterling to get here this afternoon and then we go in." Nate agreed. "Any questions?"

Shelly looked up over his head to focus on Parker who was now swinging from her rigging line like a kid on the monkey bars. "Yeah, does she come with an instruction manual?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The woman continued to stare up at Quinn as he blinked back at her. "Well?" She coughed out.

"Oh yeah... sorry." Quinn stumbled. "Just a bit surprised, considering... well, you know."

The woman slowly smiled back. "I can only hazard to guess you mean considering you didn't expect to be robbing a building, causing an explosion that sent you and your parter plummeting several floors down and landing on an innocent bystander?"

Quinn blinked at that, then slowly shifted back into soldier mode at her words; her words, or more like her wy of speaking reminded him of... he lost his thought as he shifted ever so slightly to focus in on something just over the woman's head and to his left. "Yeah, sure that too." He finally reponded and he reached out to move some debris surrounding her. "But actually, I meant considering that you seem to be perfectly capable of freeing yourself if you'd just wiggle a little more to your right... Colonel."

This time it was the woman's turn to be surprised. "How'd- what makes you say that?" She blinked those emerald green eyes at him, then grimaced in pain as she turned slightly to face him. Her progress halted almost immediately. "Crap!"

Quinn quickly reached down to run his hand over the woman's side only to pull it back and find it stained red. "You're bleeding from somewhere, but I'm not sure if it's your side or not as I'm not able to get to any other part of you." He wiped his hand off on his dark slacks. "Can you give me an inventory...?"

"Beth... my name's Beth." She paused as she focused on herself. When she'd landed, she'd been just about to round the corner to come up behind the two men tryng to get into the vault. The explosion had shook her a bit, and knocked her against the opposite wall, knocking the wind out of her. She'd thought then she wasn't really hurt, but now she wasn't sure if it was from the first blast or the floor falling. Her side was on fire now and she wasn't sure if she had any other injuries, because the pain was hard to push aside to even thnk about her lower limbs. "I'm not sure, but I don't think anything's broken. It's hard to breathe through the pain, but I'm positive no ribs are broken."

"You sure?"

"Pretty sure. I've broken some before, doesn't feel the same. Think it's just a cut or scrape on my side, probably from the debis or the fall. My arms are okay and I'm not feeling anything along my legs, so I think that's it."

"Okay, good." Quinn moved a bit more to his left closer to Eliot so he could allow her more room. He reached revealing his sleeveless undershirt. He quickly pulled the black shirt back over his head and reached for the blade he kept in his right boot. Flipping it out he began to shred the T-shirt. "I'm going to have you put this against where it's hurting until I can get you out and make a proper bandage." He handed her a strip he'd wadded up. "But I need to check out my friend first. Can you hang on a few more minutes, Colonel?" He smiled at her quick look again. "It's not hard to miss the insignia on your badge there." He pointed to the lanyard hanging from a girder several inches back and behind her head.

She turned to see where he was pointed and couldn't help grimacing again as her face on the badge smiled back at her. Col. Beth Rhinehart, formerly of the US Army and now employed by Richmond Industries was currently not feeling much like the highly intelligent intelligence officer they'd hired last year. "Crap." She said again.

"No worries, sweetheart." Quinn replied. "We'll just have to have a nice chat when all this is over."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jim Sterling was not a happy man right now. He stood on the balcony to his spacious flat in London. He'd just gotten off the phone and that call had brought the scowl to his face he still wore. Before the call, he'd been enjoying the view of the city below while he sipped from his glass of Jameson; damn whiskey. It was something Ford had gotten him as a gag gift; an Irish whiskey for a scots. He shook his head at the memor; he'd once preferred Ballantine's, but now he secretly drank the Jameson's. Damn Irishman, he thought.

After that call from Aec Hardison though, he couldn't even enjoy his whiskey in private. Damn, Nate Ford... again. The last thing he wanted was to owe Nate Ford anything, but he had pomised the man that last time they'd stood face to face; and while he wasn't above doing someone over, soething he did on a regular basis, he knew he didn't have that option with Nate. Because Nate had Spencer on his team, and Eliot Spencer was a whole different ballgame.

When he'd been sitting in that car in Dubai talking with Spencer, he'd known the only way he stood a chance of detaining Nate and his team was to take out the hitter first. Take out Eliot and the rest was easy. But he hadn't realized just how hard it would be. At the time it'd seemed easy; drug the man, lock him in that room and move on to the others one at a time.

When Ford had caught up to him and Olivia, Sterling hadn't realized the consequences of his actions; he'd only been thinking of Olivia. It had _seemed_ easy at the time to screw over Nate Ford and his team, but afterwards he'd had it brought to his attention that it had all been _too_ easy, and he'd been left questioning why he hadn't realized before just how easy Eliot had made it for him.

It was Tara Cole who had filled in the blanks for him. After leaving Nate with the promise of getting the information he wanted on Jack Latimer, he'd headed for the airfield where he'd hired the private jet to get himself and Olivia out of the country.

Pulling up to the tarmac he'd seen her; the woman was stunningly beautiful. Always had been, and always would be. Jim Sterling had never thought about any woman the way he had his wife, until he'd met this woman.

They'd met years ago, when he'd been working with Ford while they'd been chasing Sophie Devereaux all over Europe. Tara had gotten both himself and Ford off Sophie's trail and had turned their attention onto her. He didn't think that Nate had any idea this woman that had helped them when Sophie had went on her sabbatical, was the same woman back then, but Sterling knew.

Tara Cole had been on his watch list since that day. He'd almost caught up to her in Geneva once, then again in Madrid. But it was when he'd been in Stolkholm, that they'd actually met in the hotel lobby. He'd been there looking for a hugely overinsured silver and garnet ring, that was linked to the Czar of Russia and had been missing for several years now. Somehow it had been moved all over the country at least twice, but now he'd had a lead that sent him to Sweden.

IYS had finally had to pay out on insurance claim, but the case was still open. Ford had been gone by then; Sterling had taken over all the large cases, and this one had been the thorn in his side. He hadn't found the ring, and he'd just about given up hope, until that anonymous call came.

He'd headed immediately for Sweden and once there, he'd met Tara. She'd called him, and she'd had the ring. She'd give it to him, for a price and no questions asked. He'd toyed with the idea of just taking it and doing his job; having her arrested and moving on to the next case, but instead he'd ended up having dinner with the woman and spending an entire weekend with her.

Sterling had taken the ring back to the states, while she'd taken off for parts unknown and he hadn't seen her since that time. Which was why he was surprised to find her there, waiting for him when he'd pulled up to the plane.

 _He watched as she walked over to him. He slowly got out of the car and instructed his daughter to go ahead and board the waiting aircraft while he spoke to her._

 _"Hello, Sterling." The voice was all business, no hint of the woman he'd last seen._

 _"Hello, darling."_

 _She smiled at him then. "We need to talk, sweetheart. Seems you've done something that no one has been able to do in a very long time." She watched as Sterling's eyes moved beyond her to see his daughter quckly boarding the plane. "She's pretty; looks just like her mother, doesn't she?"_

 _Sterling returned his gaze to her, tilting his head to the left. "Yes, she does." He breathed in and slowly exhaled waiting for the woman to tell him what it was she wanted._

 _As if reading his mind, she stated. "I'm not here for myself, Jim. I'm here for you. Don't ask me why, I'm not really sure myself, but I know what happened with Ford and his team; how they helped you rescue Olivia. I also know that you had your hands on Eliot Spencer." Sterling didn't reply, he simply continued to watch her. "Okay, fine. Right to the point then. I've spoken with Sophie, and she asked me to pass on a message to you."_

 _"And that would be...?" He urged her._

 _"Just that Eliot allowed it to happen." At the confused look Sterling gave her, Tara continued, "Didn't you even think once about how easy it had been to drug Eliot? Do you really think he'd have let you just do that to him without any problems? The man has never let himself be duped so easily before."_

 _"What are you talking about?" He asked, his heart slowing down a beat. He hadn't had time to really think about it then, but she'd been right... it had been easy... too easy._

 _I'm talking about the fact that Eliot Spencer allowed you to drug him so he could get something from you. Something you never part with, until now." She said, smiling slyly at his discomfort._

 _Jim Sterling looked at her, then suddenly realization dawned. He reached for the inside pocket of his suit coat and found it empty. He looked at her in surprise. Eliot had fallen into him slightly when they'd first walked into that room where he'd left him when he did finally pass out. He'd been wondering then if the man would ever pass out; now he realized Spencer had been fighting the drug util he was able to... Damn it, Eliot Spencer had taken his only leverage against Sophie Devereaux and by extension, Ford's whole team. The same leverage he'd planned to use in the not too distant future. He'd been counting on that bounty money to keep Olivia safe, but now it was gone..._

 _"That's right, sweetheart. Eliot Spencer picked your pocket like an expert thief. He allowed you to drug him because he needed to let you think your plan was on track and your mind was on Olivia and not on the object you would never normally let out of your sight." Tara paused for the full effect to sink in. "Eliot Spencer took the birth certificate you stole from Sophie years ago in Paris. The birth certificate that has her given name as well as her mother's name. The one you once held over her head to get information from her on all of her contacts; and the one you tried to use to get her to turn on Nate Ford and the others of her team." Tara Cole smiled at the man's shocked expression. "Which now means that you don't have any proof of who she really is, or any means to continue blackmailing her. It also means that you will not be able to use Sophie to secure the capture of Eliot so you can collect the many bounties on his head; and it also means now that Eliot knows what you were doing to Sophie and what you were going to do to him, he will seek his revenge... sooner or later; if not just for that alone, but for the many repulsive moves you've made to anyone in your past. You, my dear, James Sterling, are so screwed right now, that I think it's best you get Olivia and yourself somewhere out of his path and pray he has more important people to kill before he finds you."_

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Eliot?" The voice filtered in and out of his brain; repeating the same things over and over. "Hey, Eliot. Wake up, man."

Eliot? Who was that? He tried to breathe through the pounding in his head, but it was impossible.

"Come on, Eliot. I could use your help here. Wake up, damn it!" There it was again, only more intense. _Who the hell was Eliot?_ He tried to open his eyes, but he gave up. The pain was too intense. He wished that voice would go away. He sighed as he fell back on the cloud he'd been using to nap, just a few more minutes... he needed just a few more minutes... then he'd wake up...

"Quinn, he's not waking up." Beth stated as she sat next to Quinn. She cradled her side where Quinn had wrapped the gash caused from her fall. She'd need to get another tetanus shot, but other than that, he'd said it was a pretty clean tear and should heal okay as long as they got it stitched up soon, before the swelling become too much to work with. "Maybe you should just go for help and I'll stay with him."

Quinn had thought of that already, but had decided against it. While Beth at the moment wasn't much of a threat, he knew she was military, former or not, and one still usually remained attached in some way when they'd reached the level of authority she had; and because she was working in the private sector using her military training, he knew she'd know exactly who Eliot was if she found out; not to mention himself as well. He didn't really have an allegience to Eliot, but he also didn't hold anything against him either.

"No, I'm staying here." He met her gaze head on. "I'm sure you can understand my meaning, Colonel?"

She frowned slightly. "Yeah, I guess I can." She sighed. "Then what do you suggest since we can't get him out of this position or leave him alone?"

"I'm not sure yet. I'll think on it, but right now I need to assess Eliot's damage and try to fix him up enough to at least know he won't die if left alone; because if I left him for dead, he'd find a way to either hunt me down in the afterlife or haunt my ass just for the fun of it."


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Nate Ford sat alone at the corner table in McRory's bar; waiting. Sterling was late. Nate looked again at his watch for what was probably the fifth time in the last hour. "Hardison? Anything yet?" He spoke softly, not wanting to draw attention to himself or his conversation.

"Yeah. His taxi just pulled up outside. He's heading in now."

"Good. Keep tabs on the taxi, just in case." Nate replied. "Are Parker and Shelly in place?"

"Yep. Although, I think Shelly is having a bad time keeping up with my girl." Hardison chuckled as he listened to the two in question who were right now waiting in the shadows of the parking lot outside Richmond Towers. If Shelly survived Parker, he would buy the guy a T-Shirt saying just that.

Nate smiled as he imagined the poor guy dealing with Parker's special type of energy. He looked up from his coffee just as Sterling walked through the front door of the bar. He adjusted his comm so he could hear the fun from Shelly's comm. He smiled, then adjusted the comm to speak with just Sophie and Hardison at the moment. "Sophie? You ready?"

"Always." Come the soft sultry voice of the grifter. "Been inside now about an hour, and this place is running a skeleton crew of essential personnel only. The medical staffing is sufficient though, so that's a plus if we need them. Seems most of the security is working the floors in an upward sweep; checking and clearing each floor before moving onto the next one."

"Good, keep me posted." Nate watched as Jim Sterling slide into the chair opposite him.

"So Ford, what is it exactly you want me to help you with now?"

Nate grinned slightly at the man. "Well, Sterling, it's more about what I can do for you." He waited while the waitress brought another glass to their table.

"Need anything else, Nate?" The woman asked kindly.

"No, we're good. Thanks, Cora." He waited a beat as the woman walked away.

"What exactly is it you think you can do for me?" Sterling asked as he helped himself to a healthy serving of the bottle of Jameson sitting between the two. To hell with secretly enjoying the famous brand, he didn't think it mattered anymore anyway.

"I think you know, Jim." He sipped again from his glass. "I need your help bypassing the security codes for the Richmond Towers security system. They seem to have the same security system as that museum in the New York City. You remember the one I'm talking about?"

Sterling looked intently at the liquor in front of him. "And why would I help you with that?"

"Because Eliot Spencer is trapped in that building, possibly hurt, possibly dead by now and in either case, I want him back. And if you don't help me, then I'll make sure that little museum in New York City learns how their technology was sold on the open market by the former IYS investigator who was once hired to oversee the installing of said 'one of a kind system'. You know the agent I mean don't you, Jim?"

Sterling realized then, that no matter what happened after this, he'd be screwed either way. Sophie and Eliot knew he'd been trying to blackmail Sophie and turn Eliot in; Nate knew of his involvement with the security system; and Tara knew that the ring she'd gien him was supposed to be returned to IYS, but it never actually made it back to them. The only people he hadn't screwed over were Hardison and Parker, and he knew if he didn't help Ford, then he might as well add them to the list as well. Having every single member out for his skin, well that would not be good.

"Well, Jim?"

"What do you need to know?"

Nate Ford settled back in his chair. "Everything, Sterling. I want to know everything."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Damn it, Parker? Can you just focus for one damn minute?" Shelly spoke in frustration as he managed to maneuver through the final air duct the petite blonde had pushed him through. The girl couldn't sit still for one second, let alone a full minute.

"Can't. Gotta get to Eliot." She jumped down from the duct opening into the chest of the man waiting to help her down.

The two went down and as Parker squirmed in his arms, Shelly swore softly under his breath; he had no idea how Spencer put up with this ball of energy every time they did a con. "I'm gonna kill Spencer myself, if he isn't already dead. Just for getting me involved with all of you in the first place."

Parker stilled instantly at his words. "Eliot isn't dead and you can't hurt him, cause Eliot is more badass than you are." She smiled suddenly as she thought of something. "Besides, you like us or you wouldn't be helping us."

Shelly watched in silence as the thief got up and reached her hand out to help him up. _Damn it Eliot Spencer!_ _What have you gotten me into? He thought,_ _with a slow smile._ He shook his head and allowed her to help him to his feet.

"Okay, Hardison, we're in. Piece of cake, now where to? Anything from Sterling yet?" Parker said into her comm.

"Give me a sec. Nate is talking to Sterling right now."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sophie watched quietly from her post in the corner of the main floor. There was a small sitting area situated there to allow visitors to wait for appointments. It was also close to the company's personal medical offices for employees or emergencies. It was a small clinic, but it was stocked well; her trip to get the lay of the land had her checking it's inventory. She couldn't think of anything missing that might be needed in case Parker and Shelly found Eliot or Quinn in need of medical attention.

She could see the security men in their uniforms milling around the lobby when she'd first arrived, but now they were joined by a lot more men wearing more intense military type attire. They were bringing in professionals now to search for the two men, and they were sending the rental cops home. Slowly but surely all afternoon, there had been a steady stream of regulars leaving the building and the professionals were replacing them.

This place definitely had something to hide, and she really wanted to know what it was. "Nate?" She whispered into her comm. "How's it going with Sterling?" She'd been listening to Hardison's conversations with both Nate and with Parker, but had tuned some of the basic word play out to focus more on her surroundings, and now she needed to pass along this new information. "There's a lot of intense professionals coming in and they've sent everyone but medical and essential personnel out the door."

"I've got just about everything. Give me ten minutes and I'll be there. Sterling has given me something to work with and Hardison and I are headed your way. Seems this company isn't just building toys or video games anymore." Nate answered her. "I'm coming in as a Doctor on their call list. Hardison's getting me in as we speak. He's gonna need some time, but the plan is to re-write the whole security system to work in our favor, but he needs access at a certai time to get the program in. We have everything we need to get to our guys, and then we have a little something we need to leave for Richmond Industries, Inc."

Sophie smiled as she watched two men across the room. "Nate, tell Hardison to lock in on the front lobby camera. It looks like there are two guys who may have had their first run in with Eliot and Quinn." The two men she saw were practically carrying each other off the lobby elevator and heading towards the medical department. "Seems I've got my first patients of the night, and by looking at these first two, the rest are in for a long night."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Damn it Quinn, stop yelling at me, will ya?" Eliot Spencer came around quickly when Quinn, who'd finally reached the point where he was beyond caring if he caused more pain to the hitter or not, reached out and yelled directly into Eliot's face to get the man back into this world. "I'm not deaf!"

Quinn couldn't believe how relieved he felt as he finally managed to get the other man to come around. "Well, I wasn't sure, cause you've been ignoring me for the last six hours." He paused as he focused on the fact that even though Eliot had answered him, he hadn't opened his eyes or moved. "You okay, man?"

Eliot thought for a long moment before replying, "No."

The reply sent another wave of panic through Quinn. "Eliot," he said, "Talk to me... where are you hurt?"

"Besides my ribs when you first blew me up, you mean?"

"Funny Eliot, really funny. Just tell me where you hurt."

Eliot sighed. "My head's killing me, and not just the basic run-of-the-mill concussion, either. This is worse; class 10 on a scale of 1-5. Hurts to try and focus, light hurts... nauseous." He swallowed several times to try and stave off the bile that came rushng up as he talked.

"Anything else? Arms, legs, chest? All good?"

Eliot thought about that. "I'm thinking all okay, 'cept I can't really feel my legs right now. Something's got me pinned; can you see me?"

"Yeah, I'm right here. You don't think you have any broken bones? Other than the ribs... okay." He stated sarastically.

"I don't think so."

"Okay, good. We've got to get you out of here as soon as possible. People are looking for us and not your people. Had a run in just a minute ago, with a couple that snuck in behind me and Beth." It had been Beth who had seen the two men coming up from their left and warned him. His attention had been focused on getting Eliot out, and he'd let his guard down a bit.

The two guards hadn't seen Beth though, but they had seen Quinn, and he'd had to go deal with them when he didn't really want to, because now they knew where he had been. After knocking the two men out, he'd hurried back to Eliot. He had to get him out and he had to do it now.

Eliot focused in on Quinn's words and managed to open one eye. At first, he wished he hadn't, but he managed to keep that one eye opened so he could focus on his surroundings. Once he did did that, he allowed himself the luxury of resting before attempting the other one. "Who's Beth?" He asked, trying to relax as Quinn began working on the smaller rocks beneath his body.

"Me."

Eliot turned his head quickly to his right, and found the green-eyed woman. His one eye focused fairly quickly and he didn't feel too sick at the sharp turn, so maybe he'd be okay when he had the nerve to get the other eye open. She was beautiful despite the soot and dirt, he noticed. "OK." He replied before returning to focus back on Quinn. "Your girlfriend decided to join us?"

Quinn laughed, "Not my girlfriend. This is Colonel Beth Rhinehart, former US Army intelligence. Now Richmond Industries head of security. Beth this is Eliot."

Eliot returned to focus back on the woman. He slowly opened his other eye and allowed it time to focus as she sat next to him using a rag to try and wipe something off his face. "Pleased to meet you, ma'am. Please forgive me for not standing to properly greet you, but under the circumstances..."

Beth smiled at the man. "That's okay. Totally understand." This man, Eliot was just as charming as Quinn, she thought to herself.

Quinn managed to get a gap under Eliot that allowed his body to slide down some from the concrete slab and this gave Quinn the room he needed to pull Eliot out. "Okay, Eliot... I've got room to pull you out so this may hurt, but we've got to move. Those two guys will be waking up any minute and we do not want to be here when they do. Got it."

Eliot sighed and nodded slowly. "Yeah, let's go." He gritted his teeth in preperation for any pain that he felt sure was to come.

"Good." Quinn replied, then he gripped Eliot under his shoulders and hooked over his upper chest and began pulling for all his worth.

He was glad when Eliot's body practically slid out with no problems. He guessed that Eliot hadn't felt any pain, or at least he han't given any indication that he had, so Quinn was hopeful nothing was wrong and they'd be able to get off this floor and out of this building. After that all they had to do was get somewhere safe to heal up from this disaster. Easier said then done.

"Anything hurt?" He asked Eliot.

Eliot was pretty sure the only thing really wrong with him were the broken ribs and the massive concussion. "Just my head. Think I'm good. Don't know for how long though."

"Then let's get you up and moving. Beth can you get us off this floor."

"Yes. We need to get to the door over that way, to the back stairs and we can hit the lower floors. But I don't know what's happening or if we will run into any other guards. I'm the one who would normally be leading a search for you two, so I'd start from the bottom and work my way up clearing each floor, but my second is kind of an pain in my ass, so not sure what he's up to right now or how much time has gone by." She had pointed off into the darkness as Quinn worked to get Eliot on his feet. "I'm not sure what you were here to steal, but considering all the things I know about this company so far, I'm pretty sure I have an idea. And trust me Quinn, like I already told you, I've been trying to bring this company down since I got here." Beth added standing up to prepare to lead them out.

While the two had worked on reviving Eliot, Beth had guessed that Quinn and Eliot were former military in some way, and she'd come clean about what the government suspected the company was doing. She'd been sent in undercover to find proof, and had thought maybe they were a part of the company's dark side of things.

"Okay, Eliot. We're getting you out of here and Hardison is just going to have to figure another way to get his little toy." He gripped Eliot's right arm over his shoulder and helped the man stagger over the debris following Beth through the darkness as she led the way with a dim flashlight taken off one of the guards.

"Yeah, maybe..." Eliot sighed, as he clung to the other retrieval specialist.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

"Dr. Nathan Krakowski, MD. This is my badge and my security clearance. Got a call I might be needed here tonight." Nate said to the guard posted at the entrance of the building.

"One moment, Dr." The guard took the badge from Nate and ran it through a handheld scanner. It came up okay, thanks to Hardison's magic, and the man sent Nate in the front door.

Once inside, he spoke softly, as if to himself, "I'm in Hardison. How's the re-write going?"

"Almost got it downloaded. As long as Parker and Shelly can gain access to the server room in the next 15 minutes and hit the main switch, the entire building will go black. When that happens, everything, every damn thing in that building will be mine. You got to be with Sophie before that happens, Nate." Came Hardison's reply. "I can't risk losing anyone else there."

Sophie's voice come over the comm at that. "You didn't lose anybody, Hardison. We'll figure it all out, don't worry. I'll meet you in the lobby, Nate. The two guards we have here in the infirmary, were on the 14th floor when they came across a man that took them down. They said his hair was wild and he had crazy in his eyes." She paused, with a chuckle. "Thought they meant Eliot at first, then realized they were talking about Quinn."

Nate smiled as he listened to the grifter's chuckle; then turned to watched Sophie walking towards him. "Well, we know one is alive then. Now let's hope once Hardison gets control of the building, that we can get Eliot as well."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jim Sterling sat alone in the corner table in McRory's listening to Shelly trying to rein in Parker while he relayed directions on where they would find the main switch. If they didn't get to the server room in the basement in 15 minutes, Hardison's program wasn't going to matter. There was a time limit on this system. They had to hit that main swith in order to cause the blackout that Hardison needed for his program to take control.

"Would you two stop arguing over which way to go and get your bloody selves there already!" He screeched ignoring the stares from the other bar patrons. "The room is the only one on the sub basement floor and you can't get there by elevator. You need to use the stairs, Parker. You cannot climb out the elevator and use the ropes to get there, because the bloody elevator doesn't stop at the sub basement!"

"I told you, Parker!" Shelly yelled at the blonde thief while he tried to get her to listen to him. He did not have time for this.

"I can take the elevator as far as it will go and use the access panels." She said as she continued moving back towards the elevator they'd just exited.

They'd entered the building through the roof duct work and had used the elevator to get to the 3rd floor, checking each floor as quickly as they could, and now the plan was to use the stairs from there. They needed to get to the sub basement floor, but Parker wanted to use the damn elevator to get there.

"The access panel is on top of the elevator! How can you go up to the sub basement when this elevator does not go down any farther than the first floor?" He put himself between her and the elevator.

She turned to face him, giving him that trademark tilt of her head to one side; she looked at him as if she didn't understand why he wasn't getting something that was simple. "Service elevators access every floor, silly."

Both men paused; Sterling sat frozen at the table in the bar, and Shelly stared agape right in front of her. "Damn it!" They both spoke in unison.

"She's right, Sterling! Once we get to the floor what do we need to do?"

Sterling breathed in quickly. "Once you get on the floor there will be what looks like a normal keypad to enter a code in, it won't matter what you key in, because it's really a fingerprint scanner. Only a very few people will have access to this server. Probably only secure personnel, the top levels of the company such as the CEOs and..." he stopped as he remembered something; damn it, how could he have forgotten that detail?

"What Sterling? And what?" Shelly rushed out as he ran to keep up with Parker. They ran past the public elevator and around the corner to the back service elevator, jumping in and hitting the basement floor level. They would then use the access panel to climb up and find the hatch that repairmen would use to access elevators for repairs.

"And me." Sterling said quietly. He'd almost forgotten that detail, and wanted to kick himself for that. When he'd stolen the technology, he'd made sure that it had been added to the programming that he would also have access. One never knew when that might come in handy. "Damn it, I can't get there in 15 minutes!"

Hardison, who had been listening, interjected, "You don't have to, Sterling. Parker, remember that special phone I gave you last week?"

"The one with all the funny apps for eye scans to confuse security sensors?" She asked. The elevator had stopped at the basement floor, but Shelly had locked the doors, so they remained inside. Parker stretchd up and with Shelly's help, she pried the hidden access panel open. She prepared to climb out and to shimmy up to the sub basement.

"Yeah, that one. I also have a fingerprint app that I'm sending to your phone now. Sterling, hate to tell you this, but I got your fingerprints when we were in Dubai. You should be more careful, cause you never know when such things will come in handy." He chuckled as he heard Sterling's slight huff. "I'm sending them to your phone Parker, they should be all you need to gain access."

Shelly followed Parker up the elevator shaft clinging to the ropes and hoping he never had to do this ever again. This was so not in his job description; well not always anyway. They made it to the small door that opened in the all of the sub basement. The elevator did stop at each floor, but they were using the panel to avoid any sensors communicating their arrival.

"We're here. Hardison, how are the cameras? Anything to avoid?" Parker asked, as she climbed out of the panel and helped Shelly. She fit quite easily, but Shelly was a tighter fit.

"I don't have access to all the cameras on this floor, but I made a loop to send to the security desk computer that will replace what they would normally see. Can't control it right now if they figure it out, but I do have control of most of the lobby cameras, so if they get suspicious, I can warn you. And you're a go; they're seeing the feed now. I used the cameras from the basement level, which looks the same as your floor, except it's for storage. You have to hurry though, we're down to 6 minutes and counting. I need access in 6 minutes or we won't be able to use the building against them; or get Eliot out."

"Got it. Let's go Parker." Shelly moved quickly towards the only door in the room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Quinn stumbled along with Eliot gripping his arm across his shoulders while Beth led them down floor by floor. They found that they'd been on the 14th floor when they'd landed. They'd dropped three floors along with all that debris and managed to practically walk away from it. He wasn't surprised; he'd survived worse falls and he was pretty sure Eliot had too.

They stumbled past the 11th floor door and they were halfway down the stairs to the 10th floor when that door banged open and they saw several men rush into the stairwell. They meet the guards comig up as they were going down.

"This doesn't look good." Eliot stumbled out; taking in the number of men and working the odds in his head. He'd normally have no probem with six by himself, but he wasn't tip top here and he was guessing Quinn wasn't working on all cylinders either.

"Nope not even a little bit." Quinn agreed.

The guards turned to rush them. Quinn released his hold on Eliot and prepared to meet the oncoming guards, while Eliot tried his best to stand and help where he could. Suddenly the entire stairwell was plunged into a deep overpowering darkness. It was overwhelming, and it made Eliot feel like he was sufficating. He stood for a second or two listening as he heard the noises around him. He knew Quinn was trying to take on these men alone, and he knew he wasn't going to be much help, but he couldn't just give up.

He felt the cold hands of someone grabbing at the air near his face and he turned slightly to avoid their contact, only to allow them to connect with his shoulder instead. Eliot managed to knock the hand away an land a punch where he figured the man's stomach should be. He heard the man go down, but the next thing he knew, he was going down too. The exertion wasn't working well with his head and he was pretty sure his eyes had rolled back inside his head and were bouncing around against his skull. The last thing he heard before he was hitting the cold tile floor was the scream of the woman that had been leading them to what he'd thought was safety.

The light of a flashlight beam cut through the darkness, but it did little to tell Eliot what was happening. He heard the grunts from a man, possibly Quinn, possibly a bad guy, from his position on the floor. Then he heard the sound of more feet running and more grunting; he tried to move away from the noises and find the wall, any wall, so he could get himself back on his feet, but his ribs were pressing into him as he bent at the waist to move. He tried not to give away his location, but he wasn't prepared for someone to trip over him in the darkness. Eliot reached up and grabbed a handful of fabric and was preparing to fight with every last ounce he had, when he found himself looking up into a face he knew well. He blinked hard, several times in fact. Light now flooded the stairwell and he was able to see the man he held in a death grip.

"Eliot! It's me!" Nate Ford yelled as he tried to pry the hitter's hands from his clothing.

The darkness' sudden disappearance caused some confusion to Eliot's brain, and he knew he wasn't getting all of his brain receptors to click at once. He blinked up into the face of Nate; and behind him stood Quinn and Beth and... Sophie.

"Damn it Nate!" And with that Eliot allowed a different kind of darkness to take over. He slid happily into the tunnel and latched onto the unconsciousness. He welcomed this darkness as if a long lost friend... Eliot's last thought before releasing his grip on Nate's shirt was that he was never saying yes to Hardison ever again... never...

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Eliot wake up!"

The voice again, the same damn voice that had been bothering him since he'd found himself trapped in... in... where had he been? A tunnel? His thoughts were a mish mash of facts and he wasn't sure which ones were true facts.

"El, man wake up. Please!" This was a different voice, it was deep, but whiny, like when his kid brother had been trying desparately to get his attention when they were growing up. Eliot thought about that... he did have a kid brother... once... was he talking - his brother?

"Damn it, Eliot Spencer! You wake up this instant!" That voice he knew. Sophie... He smiled slightly... Sophie... Sophie never talked like that unless she was mad... or scared... He didn't want her scared...

"He's smiling! See, I told you he'd wake up!" Parker... that was definitely Parker... he felt a poke to his cheek then... yep definitely Parker...

Eliot slowly cracked open one eye then the other to focus on the rag tag group of people looking down at him. "What the hell happened?" He croaked out and why are you poking me, Parker?"

"You fell like three floors trying to steal Hardison's toy and then you got a bad headache, and then Quinn had to carry you out while a girl led the way... and she says hi by the way!" Parker happily filled him in.

"Parker, that's not exactly how it went." Quinn replied, sighing heavily. God, he did not know how Spencer put up with these people. They got on his nerves in less than two minutes.

Eliot focused on Quinn standing behind Nate. Next to them stood Shelly; and Sophie, Parker and Hardison were there as well. "Then how exactly did it go?" He asked, blinking around him. He seemed to be in a hospital bed. Crap, he thought. Not a hospital, too many questions. "What am I doing in a hospital bed? You know the rule, no hospitals, ever."

"It's okay, El. You're in the infirmary at Richmond Towers. We now have control over the building and we're on lock down right now waiting for Beth's contacts to get here to take care of things. Turns out this toy company was dealing in black market arms deals. Big deals; and that's why all the security over this toy of Hardison's." Quinn supplied.

"Yeah, turns out the game doesn't really exist. It was a marketing thing to keep their real business under wraps. They needed a reason to have such an intense security system installed. Seems the government had their suspicions so they sent Beth who was working for Army intelligence and was undercover to try and take them down. She's been working for Richmond almost a year now and was just about ready to take them down when I sent you guys in." Hardison filled in. "She thought you were part of the company's plans, going in to stage a robbery to cover their plans to move a shipment out last night."

"So this toy, this game really doesn't exist?" Eliot asked. "I risked my ass for nothing?"

"Not for nothing, man." Quinn smiled down at Eliot. "I got a date with Beth tomorrow."

Eliot looked back at Quinn. "Well, I'm glad I was able to help you with that." He replied, feeling utterly useless.

Everyone laughed as they watched Eliot. "It's all good man, we did stop a huge shipment of guns that were to go out and the government now has all of the company heads in custody. That's why there was so much security in the building; they wanted to spring this new game as a promotion and use the extra 'security' to move everything out of the vault last night; and that's why my detonator went off early. They were testing signals to scramble the military satellites so they could show their buyers what they were getting. Now they're all gonna be in jail for the next few years... or centuries.." Hardison turned serious. "But I'm still kinda bumbed cause I could of really done things with that game."

Eliot took everything in. "So we stumbled across a bad guy, or a bad company. And let me make sure Ive got this down - we saved the day and the girl and everyone's alive and I'm the one lying here, simply because I let Hardison talk me into this in the first place?"

"Yes, dear. But we did get to put one over on someone who isn't used to that." Sophie spoke softly for Eliot's benefit only as she reached down to kiss his forehead. "And he's now in hiding from you, so that's a good thing."

Eliot smiled at the woman. Then he turned to Hardison, "So, you still wish you had the game anyway, so you could play with your dragons and elves?"

Hardison opened his mouth to say something, when Eliot reached out his hand where he'd worked down into his back pants pocket as he'd been talking. He'd managed to grab that cube and slip the game cartridge out of the cube when it cracked and just an instant before the fall, he'd slipped it in his pocket.

Hardison reached out to take the small cartridge. The smile that came over him he just couldn't hide. It didn't matter if it was real or fake, he could use it to make it what it really should be in the first place. He turned back to Eliot, "Damn it Eliot! I keep telling you they ain't elves!"

THE END


End file.
